Isaiah - The Man
In order to understand the Book of Isaiah, it would be helpful to know something about the writer.
There are prophets with books in the Bible, and there are some prophets with no books bearing their names.
There are major prophets and minor prophets. This does not mean the major prophets are more important than the minor prophets. It simply means the major prophet books are much longer. For instance, Isaiah has 66 chapters and Obadiah has only one chapter.
There are four major prophets:
Isaiah
Jeremiah
Ezekiel
Daniel
There are twelve minor prophets:
Hosea
Joel
Amos
Obadiah
Jonah
Micah
Nahum
Habakkuk
Zephaniah
Haggai
Zechariah
Malachi
The books of the prophets are in both poetry and prose also called narrative. The oracles or prophesies are in poetry form and the stories surrounding them are called narratives.
Know the reason for the prophets. Also, know that the time of Isaiah's prophesies, Israel had become a divided nation into the Southern Kingdom and the Northern Kingdom. The Southern Kingdom is Judah, the smallest one with only two tribes. The Northern nation is the largest one named Israel with ten tribes. Because there are two nations, there are different prophets God assigned to each one. Keep this in mind when you study any of the prophets. Not only was a prophet at the time of the writing, a king and priest were also called over that nation at a particular time. Isaiah was born in the Southern Kingdom, but he was called to prophesy in both nations.
More than one prophet prophesied at the same time. For instance, while Isaiah was prophesying to Israel and Judah. Hosea prophesied was assigned mainly to Israel, the northern ten tribes. Micah was with Isaiah speaking primarily to Judah in the south.
In order to understand the message, one must understand Isaiah the man. You get to know something about Isaiah in the very first verse of the book. This is the format for all the books of the prophets. If you skip the very first verse, you won't get to know important details in the book.
This is an overview of who Isaish was, according to Isaiah 1:1. "The vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem that Isaiah son of Amoz saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah."
1. God called Isaiah to become a prophet through a vision.
2. Isaiah was called to prophesy over Judah, the smallest nation.
3. Isaiah was the son of Amoz.
4. Isaiah prophesied under the reign of four kings of Judah: Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah.
Isaiah lived in Judah, the southern divided kingdom, but he prophesied to the whole nation of Israel.
Notice that the first verse is in prose. Then the rest of the chapter is written in poetry.
Isaiah's name means “salvation of God” or "the Lord is salvation" in Hebrew. Isaiah's favorite name for God is "Holy One of Israel." In his book it is used 25 times, while found only six times in all the rest of the Bible.
You will find that title is recorded many times in the Book of Isaiah than any other title. His favorite designation for God is "The Lord of Hosts" that is used 62 times in the book.
Isaiah lived about 700 years before the birth of Jesus Christ. He was a major Hebrew prophet who predicted the coming of Jesus Christ.
Isaiah is often referred to as "The Messianic Prophet" because of his many prophecies that were fulfilled in Jesus. The New Testament quotes and applies more scriptures from the book of Isaiah than any other Old Testament prophet.
He was married and had two sons, Shear-Jashub ("the remnant shall return", Isaiah 7:3) and Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz ("in-speed-spoil-booty- hastens", Isaiah 8:3), whose names symbolized his message. Isaiah prophesied for about fifty years.
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